An Appalling Act of Demagoguery

We are all hard to shock these days, but what Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota did yesterday was shocking. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports:

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton visited Bruce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul Thursday as a backdrop for a rare public veto to block a GOP-backed tax overhaul from becoming law.

With a group of second- and third-graders standing behind him, Dayton stamped the voluminous tax bill as the students said “veto.” The bill was the Republican-led Legislature’s first attempted to align the state tax code with recent federal changes.

Dayton actually had the second graders shout “Veto!” as he stamped the bill. Unbelievable. The teacher in the background is shouting “Veto!” too:

What was his rationale? The usual nonsense:

“This bill is cake to the rich and big corporations…

The bill cuts the corporate income tax rate from 9.8% to 9.1%. It would give Minnesota the sixth-highest corporate income tax rate in the U.S., rather than the third-highest. It doesn’t cut the highest personal income tax rate.

…and crumbs to people who need it,” Dayton said….

Dayton echoes Nancy Pelosi in deriding the cuts in the state’s second and third tax brackets, the first personal income tax cuts in quite a few years, as “crumbs.” Does that mean he is in favor of larger tax cuts for middle and lower-income Minnesotans? Of course not.

…later adding: “This veto is for these children and their futures.”

The last refuge of a scoundrel. You may think your state has a bad governor, but unless you live in Minnesota, he’s not the worst.